Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education covers education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge. (For archives prior to January 2007, please click here. For posts after November 2007, please click here.) Comments on this blog are now closed.

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Sorry Margaret, 'the soft bigotry of low expectations' is not the biggest plague in education. Try children arriving in kindergarten suffering from the 'soft trauma of negligent parenting'. Trauma in attachment renders a child unable to learn and can effect cognitive functioning. This lack of attachment can be in an affluent home with all the bells and whistles, with a child who sits in front of a computer or tv for a human connection.

Thank you for providing this.
Stewart had no idea what to ask, had no interest in challenging, in any way, Spellings' statements. This is in stark contrast with Stewart's amazing grasp of other areas of politics.

It is depressing that this show had so much potential to raise issues about the inappropriate role of the federal government in curriculum, but didn't. Stewart did not appear to have any understanding or interest asking questions like, Why do we have these reoccuring problems in education? C'mon John, ask any teacher.

Take the quote and problematize, "soft bigotry of low expectations." Sure everybody wants high expectations, but who determines what the difference is between high expectations and unrealistic, frustrating curriculum? I hope the federal or state government doesn't make that decision. Teachers have to have the freedom to make sense of what is high expectations for their own students. Children mature at different stages and what is impossible one year is easy the next. Teachers are the only ones to know the proper level of difficulty. At the same time, we have to admit that teachers are not all saints and sometimes do have low expectations.
These are not simple issues and cannot be addressed through multiple choice tests or a superficial federal mandates. It takes well studied, professional teachers.